Shantae groaned as she fluttered her eyes open, squeezing them shut at the harsh, late morning light. Pulling her tank top over her exposed chest – probably caught somewhere on the sheets during her sleep – she rolled to the side and stared at the wall through lidded eyes. Various body parts ached and throbbed, originating from the intense fights she had the day before. The healing spas were good for open wounds and cuts, but anything on the inside or any pain that came later on had to be healed through drinking a potion, and Shantae didn't want to get into the habit of using them for any and every injury.

Focusing on a patch of sunlight shining across her wall, the genie thought back to the celebration for her heroic deeds. She had partied hard, harder than usual – the experience of being in and speaking to the Genie Realm begged for a well-deserved, special treatment. Shantae unconsciously smirked, thinking back to how much alcohol Sky had consumed during the night. It was enough that the heroine had even spotted her joking around and conversing with Rottytops. The smirk disappeared at this thought. What ever happened to their relationship? A few weeks ago, they were the best of friends, nearly as close as Shantae was to Sky, and then all the friendliness (and dare Shantae say, romance) died.

Shantae winced as a particular spot on her leg pulsed intensely for a moment, breaking her train of thought. Going over the previous day's battles, she tried to recall when she got hit there. It wasn't the Giga-Mermaid, and it definitely wasn't Ammo Baron's prototype flying suits. Squid and Hypno Baron didn't deal many bruising hits either; Squid was squishy and Hypno used his fire spells. This only left one suspect.

Risky Boots.

Shantae bit her lip as the bruise pulsed sharply, pain running up her calf. That was the spot Risky dug her heel in as Shantae tried to dodge her cutlass charge, it had to be. She whimpered a little as it reached a new intensity, instinctively moving her hand to rub the spot. She yelped as she came in contact with it, ripping her hand away from the offending spot. Sitting up, she threw the bedsheets off and pulled her pant leg up, confronted with the sight of a large purple bruise, beginning to swell, with erratic scarlet lines stemming from the centre. 'I'm going to use a potion for this,' she thought, 'I'm not dealing with this today.' She had her mind made up, and stepped out of the bed to make her way to the medical chest she had on each floor of her house.

And promptly collapsed.

The fall revived all the previous aches from before, and Shantae felt her whole body overcome with soreness. 'Yep, definitely going to need that potion now.' Realising she couldn't put pressure on her leg without it becoming numb, Shantae dragged herself to the chest, fishing around for the pack of potions that she knew was in there. 'Bandages, splints, clips, thread, cloth… teddy bear?' Shantae held up the plush, shaking her head and putting it aside. 'Ah, there it is.' Flipping over to sit against the wall, the purple-haired girl took a swig of the magenta fluid.

With the potion working its magic, the girl leaned her head back against the wall and sighed, her thoughts returning to Risky. Risky had shown no mercy during the battle, and was hell-bent on taking over the Genie Realm for herself. Shantae wasn't upset about that though, it was typical of Risky to want full control over everything. What had hurt Shantae most was how Risky acted like she had forgotten what the guardian genie had done for her. 'I saved her life, and she goes and does this…'

Shantae sniffed. It was an excuse. A huge excuse. She knew this was going to happen, Risky had even warned her to watch her back before she left. Shantae wasn't silly, she knew exactly why she was upset. She had hoped, oh so hoped, that the self-proclaimed Queen of the Seven Seas would return to her as a friend, and something more.

"You're a fool," she muttered to herself in-between sips, "a fool blinded by a stupid crush and… oh no… not again."

It was at this moment that Shantae dropped all thoughts about Risky and noticed the state of her hair. Various sizes of knots were scattered across the silky, unkempt sheet of purple. Potions also rejuvenated the state of hair, but wouldn't untie or get rid of knots that were in it, and a simple bath with her specialised shampoo and conditioner wasn't going to do it alone.

"This is going to take forever," Shantae moaned aloud. It hadn't reached a state like this in years, and even then it was just small mats and knots. Grunting in annoyance, the genie got up and grabbed her hairbrush before heading downstairs to her bathroom, beginning the long process of fixing up her hair.

The sound of violent retching filled the normally peaceful air at Sky's house.

She was in the kitchen, hunched over the sink, feeling sick to the bone. She had had far, far too much to drink the night before, celebrating Shantae's feat. Now she was regretting that decision. At least her parents weren't home for another few weeks.

A green hand was rubbing and patting the blonde's back, attempting to comfort the trembling girl. The zombie that stood next to her was very concerned, and had been looking after Sky the entire morning.

"I told you to go away," Sky said, breathing heavily. "I'll kick you out if I have to, I'm able to look after myself."

"If you were serious about that, you would have kicked me out long ago, able to look after yourself or not," Rottytops replied, rolling her eyes. "If you claim to look after yourself so well, maybe you wouldn't have got so hammered last night, and I wouldn't have had to escort you home."

"Nobody asked you to bring me home."

"And nobody asked you to bring that attitude. Now shut up and drink this. It'll stop you from vomiting later, and judging by how you're going right now, you're going to want it." Rotty placed down a glass of water in front of Sky, the last remains of a pill slowly dissolving, and folded her arms. Sky glared at the glass, willing it to break, but in the end decided to take it, after another violent retch weakened her body.

"This better not hav—"

"It's not poisoned, I promise. It's just some medicine I… borrowed from the store."

"You stole it? Rotty, that's a crime!"

"We have a natural detective here, everyone!" Rotty announced to no one in particular. "Would you rather be sick for the rest of the day or out there with your birds," she finished, pointing down the road where Sky's hatchery was. "If it helps, they were closed, and I'm going to pay them once they're open. Happy now?"

Sky exhaled. If the zombie with the very unamused face had gone to all this trouble for her, and if it did as she said it would, then Sky might as well drink it. It couldn't put her in a worse form than she already was, right? She brought the glass to her lips, then hesitated. If she could finish a whole ale in one swig…

Sky tilted her head up and let the liquid flow into her mouth, swallowing it as it entered. After drinking nearly the entire thing, the hooded girl was unable to hold her breath any longer, and swallowed the rest in one massive gulp. The last bit didn't go down properly however, and Sky broke into a coughing fit, bending over the sink again just in case it ended messily. Between her coughing, she could hear Rotty cheering.

"Woo! No wonder you drank so much last night! If you get an ale down like that, that's more time for more drinks! That's an awesome strategy!" Rotty exclaimed gleefully, clapping her hands in front of her. Sky glared daggers at her in-between coughing, clearly not sharing the same level of enthusiasm. Or enthusiasm at all.

"Knock, knock!" A voice said from the door. Both girls turned to find the local purple-haired dancer leaning in the doorway.

"Shantae!" Rotty yelled, running over to hug her friend.

"Rotty, it's been a day, you're acting like you've haven't seen me for months," Shantae said, but returned the hug anyway. While doing that, she looked over at Sky, whose mood had soured even more, her face clearly stating it.

"What's wrong Sky?" Shantae asked, releasing the hyped zombie.

"Take her away."

"What?" Both Shantae and Rotty said at the same time.

"Take her away. Please," Sky repeated, her voice unwavering.

"What?!" Rotty shouted, anger taking over. "After I take you home last night, kept watch while you slept to make sure you didn't choke on your own sick, and fetched medicine for you to feel better, I'm the one who has to go? WHY!?"

"Uh, girls, there's no need to—"

"Well first of all, Rottytops, I am completely capable enough to handle myself perfectly fine, watching over me is pretty creepy, you stole that medicine, which tasted like expired fish, and lastly, I don't trust you anywhere near me or my birds after you know what," Sky spat back, slamming the glass she still held down on the bench, scowling at Rotty.

Rotty scowled back, a remark on the tip of her tongue, before turning around and stomping out of the building, carelessly shoving Shantae out of the way.

"Ow, hey-," Shantae began, before whipping her head around to look at Sky. "Sky, what did you do? She's going to do something rash now." The brown eyed girl looked completely unconcerned. "Sky! I don't care what happened in this 'incident' but that was completely unnecessary, and you know it!" Shantae continued, prodding Sky to say something. But all the blonde haired girl did was silently look away.

"Ugh, you're in one of your stupid moods again. Maybe when you're not so unresponsive, I'll come back."

Shantae didn't even bother waiting for a response, running out the doorway in search of her undead friend. Painful bruises, knotted hair, and now two friends fighting over a mistake that was made weeks ago. 'What a terrific start to this day,' she thought as she transformed into a harpy to get an aerial view of the town, and hopefully spot the clearly emotional zombie.

Back in her home, Sky stared out the window, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

That was a bit longer than expected. It took me ages to finally get to HGH, and I haven't quite finished the Friends to the End expansion. But the game itself is really fun, soundtrack is amazing as usual. Only wish I had found out about the game earlier and backed it so I could have that really cute bikini skin for Shantae.

Anyway!

I'm back at school so chapters will take a while again, or at least around the same time. It's Year 12 so not only is it the most intense and stressful year for me, it's my last in high school, so I'm going to enjoy it while I can.

I'm sorry if this chapter isn't up to scratch (are any of them?) or the characters seem OOC (they probably do), I wrote this while in an English homework mindset, so I may come back and edit this another time if required.

I now have a Twitter account that I'll try to post updates on my stories on, which should be on my profile.

Feedback is appreciated!

Tommycats

P.S.

I really cannot decide who is second best girl besides Shantae.

It's Sky.

Wait, no, Rotty.

Sky.

Rotty.

See my problem?